Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Oatmeal Raisin Bars

I know it may not seem like it from these posts, but I like to eat healthy as often as possible. But from time to time I can't help but eat junk food, sweets, excessive amounts of cheese, I just can't do it. So after moving to Boston for the summer I decided to make my roommates something that (almost) everyone enjoys, oatmeal raisin cookies. Sadly, I didn't have cookie sheets up with me and neither did any of my roommates, so instead I chose to make them into cookie bars.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bars

All things considered, this recipe is incredibly easy-you can make the dough and throw it in the oven right then or you can put it in the refrigerator and let it chill (doing this makes the cookies chewier when you bake them.) It is a great recipe to learn off of and once you get more comfortable with it, you can experiment with food other than raisins. I like to use cranberries but other people prefer chocolate chips or different types of nuts.

I've had this recipe for years so I don't actually remember where its from, possibly a food blog or maybe a friends mother. If you recognize it, feel free to comment and tell me!

What you'll need:
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
1 1/3 cup of light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon of salt (you can add up to a teaspoon if you enjoy very salty baked goods, but if you add more it'll be too salty)
3 cups of rolled oats (not instant oats)
1 1/2 cup of raisins

Like any recipe you start with creaming the butter and sugar together until they are fully mixed together. Luckily one of my roommates has a KitchenAid so that made the process of mixing much easier. Next, add the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar and mix those until they're fully incorporated.

IMG_3108

Then place the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a separate bowl and mix them together with a fork. This allows for the dry ingredients to be evenly distributed so that when they are mixed in there is an equal amount of each ingredient being combined with the wet ingredients.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients; if you add them too quickly you'll send flour shooting all over your kitchen. I recommend using a quarter of a cup at a time, I know its tedious but it is a heck of a lot easier than cleaning it off of your cabinets later on.

IMG_3113

Once the mixture is smooth start to add the oatmeal and the raisins into the dough. Doing this slowly will prevent your electric mixer from possibly shorting out due to having too much to do at once.

IMG_3118

After all of the ingredients are mixed together butter an 9x13 pan and place the dough into the pan. Make sure to scrape out all of the dough from the bowl so that you are not leaving any behind. Then flatten out the dough into the pan and try to make sure it is even--doing this will ensure that the bars are all evenly cooked.

IMG_3122

Cook the bars for 25-30 minutes at 350° F and let them cool completely before cutting them.